Rathdowney-Errill and Clough-Ballacolla played out one of the best games the county has ever seen last Sunday night, as it ended all square in O’Moore Park.

The teams will have to meet again this Saturday afternoon, and that’ll be just fine for anyone who witnessed this game. From the first minute to the last the game was played at a ferocious pace, and it only whets the appetite for when the teams meet again.

From defending to attacking, both teams produced some outstanding play over the course of the hour. Scores rained in from all distances and angles, and every score had to be worked for, as the intensity of the defending and tackling was incredible.

If there is a better club game played anywhere in the country this year you’ll be lucky to see it, and going on past meetings, the teams should pick up from where they left off this weekend.

The first score of the game came from a John A Delaney free in the first minute, and play took off from there. Darren King responded in a matter of seconds, and that sparked a flurry of Rathdowney scores.

Brian Campion added a free and then Darren and Ross King added a point apiece as the champions went 0-4 to 0-1 ahead after just five minutes.

Clough-Ballacolla took their time to get going, but they burst into the game in the sixth minute. After Willie Hyland pointed a free, Stephen Maher then played a wonderful cross-field ball to an unmarked Willie Dunphy, and he shot low to the bottom corner.

A little over a minute later, Ballacolla won a 21 yard free and Willie Hyland stepped up to thump the ball to the net, as Ballacolla took a 2-2 to 0-4 lead. Picky Maher added another point before Rathdowney began to wrestle back control of the game.

Darren King and Brian Campion pointed frees before King added another from play as Rathdowney hauled themselves level at 0-10 to 2-4 by the 18th minute.

A quick exchange of points kept the teams level before Rathdowney found another gear, starting with two points from Darren King, one of which should have been a goal as he was put straight through.

Ross King added another soon after before Owen Houlihan’s clever hand pass set Shane Dollard up for a point from 40 yards. Things were going Rathdowney’s way now and they pressed home their advantage, as they struck for a goal.

Good pressure from John Purcell on Danny Hanlon almost saw him block the ball down and almost score a goal himself, but Ross King won possession and fired to the back of the net.

Willie Hyland scored a late free for Ballacolla but Rathdowney had the advantage at half time as they lead 1-15 to 2-7.

Clough-Ballacolla needed to get off to a good start in the second half to eat into Rathdowney-Errill’s lead, and they did just that as Willie Hyland pointed twice in the opening two minutes to give them a much-needed shot in the arm.

Rathdowney-Errill hit back with a free from Darren King, but the Clough-Ballacolla comeback had started by now and they were reeling Rathdowney in with each passing minute.

Midway through the half they were back within one thanks to Willie Hyland (free), and then Aidan Corby and Stephen maher pointed to put them ahead.

Rathdowney-Errill responded like champions, getting themselves level within a minute through John Purcell, and there would be no separating them before the final whistle.

Enda Meagher put Rathdowney ahead with four minutes left, but Stephen Maher levelled it up again and sent the teams to a replay once again.

This website and its associated newspaper are full participating members of the Press Council of Ireland and supports the Office of the Press Ombudsman. This scheme in addition to defending the freedom of the press, offers readers a quick, fair and free method of dealing with complaints that they may have in relation to articles that appear on our pages. To contact the Office of the Press Ombudsman go towww.pressombudsman.ie or www.presscouncil.ie

Leinster Express provides news, events and sport features from the Portlaoise area. For the best up to date information relating to Portlaoise and the surrounding areas visit us at Leinster Express regularly or bookmark this page.

For you to enjoy all the features of this website Leinster Express requires permission to use cookies.

Find Out More ▼

What is a Cookie?

What is a Flash Cookie?

Can I opt out of receiving Cookies?

About our Cookies

Cookies are small data files which are sent to your browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome etc) from a website you visit. They are stored on your electronic device.

This is a type of cookie which is collected by Adobe Flash media player (it is also called a Local Shared Object) - a piece of software you may already have on your electronic device to help you watch online videos and listen to podcasts.

Yes there are a number of options available, you can set your browser either to reject all cookies, to allow only "trusted" sites to set them, or to only accept them from the site you are currently on.

However, please note - if you block/delete all cookies, some features of our websites, such as remembering your login details, or the site branding for your local newspaper may not function as a result.

The types of cookies we, our ad network and technology partners use are listed below:

Revenue Science ►

A tool used by some of our advertisers to target adverts to you based on pages you have visited in the past. To opt out of this type of targeting you can visit the 'Your Online Choices' website by clicking here.

Google Ads ►

Our sites contain advertising from Google; these use cookies to ensure you get adverts relevant to you. You can tailor the type of ads you receive by visiting here or to opt out of this type of targeting you can visit the 'Your Online Choices' website by clicking here.

Digital Analytics ►

This is used to help us identify unique visitors to our websites. This data is anonymous and we cannot use this to uniquely identify individuals and their usage of the sites.

Dart for Publishers ►

This comes from our ad serving technology and is used to track how many times you have seen a particular ad on our sites, so that you don't just see one advert but an even spread. This information is not used by us for any other type of audience recording or monitoring.

ComScore ►

ComScore monitor and externally verify our site traffic data for use within the advertising industry. Any data collected is anonymous statistical data and cannot be traced back to an individual.

Local Targeting ►

Our Classified websites (Photos, Motors, Jobs and Property Today) use cookies to ensure you get the correct local newspaper branding and content when you visit them. These cookies store no personally identifiable information.

Grapeshot ►

We use Grapeshot as a contextual targeting technology, allowing us to create custom groups of stories outside out of our usual site navigation. Grapeshot stores the categories of story you have been exposed to. Their privacy policy and opt out option can be accessed here.

Subscriptions Online ►

Our partner for Newspaper subscriptions online stores data from the forms you complete in these to increase the usability of the site and enhance user experience.

Add This ►

Add This provides the social networking widget found in many of our pages. This widget gives you the tools to bookmark our websites, blog, share, tweet and email our content to a friend.